You should call John, he's an interesting old world r & d guy. Good to shoot the breeze with..... no roller cam or steel crank. 283 pistons, nascar takeout rods. not real special stuff but its in the combo. Idk know if he's Swiss cheesed any rotating parts....maybe?
John knows his stuff he spins that thing to 7500, has all those parts Mart said. He is a machinist, he knows balance. It went to 10 grand when either he hit water something, I know he went out of control and hit the wall and he saw the tach at 10 grand before that. I don't think he even hurt the motor. I think it can run to 8 grand with the right parts and I think that is the way to set up this motor to race, It likes to run better past 3500 rpm Spin it like a ls motor lol it can handle it.
Speaking of power to weight... Eventually I downsized and got into MGB's. It's a hefty little chunk, coming in between 2100 and 2400 stock depending on the year which is a lot for a car that size and most of the extra weight is in the unibody. But now you take that body and drop in a Buick 300 which fits like it was made for it (after '74 it was... actually the Rover 3.5L but the 300 fits just fine) and now you have something. Stroke that 300 with a 350 crank and it's something else again. Add a blower... well you get the picture. You tend to add a little weight. My car is up to 2700lbs but it has a Jag IRS and other neat features I don't want to give up. Still, that SBB makes all the difference. Definitely a fun ride, every time I go out I come back grinning. My first car was a 1970 Cutlass Supreme. Great car and had a fantastic engine. It would drive the needle past 120 all the way to the R once I put fancy points in it. Ran all the way up to 6 grand. Based on the tach that came out to 150 and I used to do that pretty regularly. Can't get by with that sort of nonsense today and I have to question the sanity of doing it back then, tires being what they were and all. Not a GS but most definitely it's sister. Man, I loved that car. So naturally my ex-wife totalled it. Jim
Today’s technology and a 3D printing has far reaching benefits. On a side note when NASA was looking for a engine for the new heavy lift rocket they first went back to the very complex but very reliable Saturn V F1 engine. these engines where made with over 400 parts and believe it or not every one was fine turned by hand and due to this none of the 40 something that where made where exactly a like! the use of 3D printing took those over 400 parts down to less then 100 which further increased reliability.
Wow, very cool setup, never seen a Buick 300 engine in a mgb. Must be like the tiger Sunbeam? When I was 14, we had a neighbor mechanic that worked for Buick. He had an Austin Healy that he was stiffing in a Buick 425 nailhead. Unfortunately my father (career Army) got transferred to another location and I never got to see this car fly, lol I can't imagine all the custom frame and suspension work he had to do to get a huge V8 in that car. Vet
Glad you touched on 3-D printing. Where I worked, we got into 3-D printing early on and by the time I retired in 2012, we were making parts out of various metals. The accuracy was amazing. I also had an engineer that specialized in digital 3-D scanning. He did work for GE on their commerical jet engines. GE original setup and measured the turbine blades by hand using dial indicators. With the 3-D scan process, it was much more accurate and upgraded GE's measuring process. We used his scanning process in our R&D projects. Don't you just love high technology. Vet PS, I miss my work days and environment.
I watched a video on Roll Royce jet engine manufacturing and assembly, DAMN! Every part is assembled by hand, down too the vanes for the turbines You’d better be on your A game EVERY DAY doing that!
Better be on your game because you can crash a jej and kill a lot of passengers and crew. I'am very used to this kind of assemble process, especially when it involves possible high death rates. Liability for the manufacturer is huge. Vet
For some random reason I thought that same thing watching the video “what/how do they insure for liability?” I’ve heard of a few in the airline industry from mechanics to controllers committing suicide after a plane they were in charge of crashed
Here you go Mark> About a dozen underwriters provide general aviation insurance. Some of the major players include AIG, Global Aerospace, Starr Aviation, Phoenix Aviation Managers and USAIG. Major brokers include AOPA Insurance Services, Falcon Insurance and Hardy Aviation Insurance. Now I will say, when it comes to Quality Control (QC) inspections on parts make for the airlines like jet engines. QC inspections are one most stringent to pass. When I was an apprentice machinist & Tool & Die Maker, I used to go over to the QC Inspectors department and ask them how they did QC inspections and what I should do to avoid having a part fail their QC procedures, because I didn't want any QC failures. I was amazed, they told me, make sure you have a very good surface finish on your parts. If it looks like ****, we will inspect the part to death to see if any of your machining tolerances are out of spec. Good to know! I soon because good friends with all the inspectors. They were always looked at as the BAD guys to our manufacturing department employees. One reason was, when the QC inspectors found a machined part that don't meet engineering design specifications, they would parade the part on a roll-around cart with a huge Red tag (part failed) with the name of the person that made the part. If you failed to meet specifications 3 times in one year, you were fired on the spot. O' Boy Vet
MG actually sold a V8 car, the MGBGT-V8 with a 3.5L Rover which was actually the old Buick 215. Mid year in '74 along with the rubber bumpers they redesigned the engine bay specifically for that engine and increased the radiator size on all cars. It turns out that the 300 fits just as well. MG also later made the RV8 which was an MGB with upgrades and new bodywork. I had a 340 in my '71 for awhile which is a much bigger job. Takes about the same amount of work to do that as to install the 455, which we did as a club project to promote creativity in our youth. And a very nice ride it is. Has electric power steering, cruise control, air conditioning, Fiero seats, and a Jag IRS with flared bodywork. I think this will be it's 12th year on tour and it makes quite a splash. We brought it to the Buick meet at Bowling Green a few years back. Burgundy with silver stripes, some of you may have seen it. It rained that year though so attendance was down. The 300 is the best engine choice and carries a mantle of factory legitimacy as well. With selected upgrades it can provide power levels from about 250hp on up, and can make use of all the traditional SBB upgrades. My stroker is a good example. 346ci with Wieco pistons, Carillo rods, TA-Rover heads, titanium valves, beehive springs, roller cam and rockers and an Eaton blower. Port injection and COP, engine control is via the GM '411 ECM. That engine will go in the car next winter, I'm currently building an underslung blower intake for it. While there are some similarities to the Tiger the MGB is the better car as it is considerably more modern and is stiffer due to the over-engineered unibody design where the Tiger is body on frame. It is truly one of the pure insanities of the automotive world that the V8 version was never exported to the US. But, as enthusiasts we have remedied that situation by building our own and we see typically about 50-60 cars at our annual meets. If MG had simply been allowed to purchase the 300 from Buick (who would have gladly sold them all they wanted) and then shipped them here it would have likely saved the company. It's hard for me to imagine that in those days nobody thought of that. Jim
Jim, Got to correct you on the Tiger. It is unibody with an X frame. The problem is the smaller engine bay. I have a 65 Alpine with a 260 Ford V8 in progress.
